The surprise hiring of John Gibbons as manager of the Blue Jays on Tuesday is either a case of GM Alex Anthopoulos learning a lesson from the team’s failed two-year experience with John Farrell or of him being intimidated into going with a comfortable choice rather than chance being twice burned.

After conducting almost half a dozen manager interviews this month, which in hindsight seem to have been mostly for show, the entire process with Gibbons took about five days from the time Anthopoulos called the Padres seeking permission to speak to their minor-league manager to the moment he climbed onto the stage at a Rogers Centre news conference. The San Antonio native was not among my top 50 candidates.

“This came as a big surprise to me,” Gibbons said. “I never would have guessed when this came up. Ever since I left five years ago I’ve been following the team, because I have a lot of friends here that I care about and I’m always rooting for this organization that gave me my first shot to be a big-league coach and a big-league manager. Especially lately, I’ve been kind of following the manager search. You guys (the media) were way off. You guys were as far off as I was.”

Anthopoulos insists he got the right man, even though Gibbons has managed just one year, this past season at Double-A San Antonio, since being fired by former Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi partway through the 2008 season. He was replaced by Cito Gaston, the Jays’ first retread as manager.

“From my standpoint, I don’t know that there was anybody better in terms of managing a bullpen, connecting with the players, connecting with the front office, holding players accountable, really everything you’d want in a manager,” Anthopoulos said, seemingly inadvertently pointing out all the shortcomings of the previous skipper.

“From my standpoint, I don’t have any stronger belief that this is the right guy to lead this team. I’ve got more conviction in this hire, in this move, from my standpoint, than I probably have with any transaction we’ve made here. I’m thrilled to have him.”

But there will always remain lingering doubt in the minds of the critics that Anthopoulos has resorted to a much safer option, a 50-year-old manager who was grateful when he was hired to replace Carlos Tosca midway through the 2004 season and who was, in fact, not even applying for the Jays job when Anthopoulos called. The Jays will have to contend for the playoffs to dispel notions of playing it safe.

“They’ve invested a lot in this ball club, so it’s really important that they get the right guy,” Gibbons said. “To go out on a limb and bring back an individual who was here just a few years ago is a big thing. I know it wasn’t an easy decision for Alex. There are so many qualified individuals, but when it’s all said and done I think I fit the characteristics he was looking for.”

Anthopoulos was looking for someone who could better run the bullpen and control the clubhouse, two areas for which Farrell was roundly criticized. There was Brett Lawrie running roughshod at and over umpires. There was Yunel Escobar and his homophobic slur on his paste-on eyeblack. Perhaps the ship-jumping skipper’s problems stemmed from the fact Farrell always knew he wanted to go somewhere else and when Bobby Valentine talked his way out of the picture in Boston, Farrell saw his future unfolding before him. In any case, the Jays have gone from laissez-faire to laissez-glare.

“I haven’t done it very often — made decisions based on what the optics might be, what perception might be, or how the media might react,” Anthopoulos said of the important lessons he feels he has learned. “But I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s about making the right decision. I’ve got more conviction in this transaction and this hiring than I’ve had in any. I can sleep like a baby, because I know this was the right decision, it’s my decision, it’s what I wanted to do.”

There’s a chance Anthopoulos is going to be wrong about Gibbons, but only time will tell. The two lasting memories from Gibbons’ previous go-round as skipper involved physical confrontations with DH Shea Hillenbrand, who disrespected the organization in the clubhouse, and lefty Ted Lilly, who disrespected his manager on the field when lifted from a game.

“Yeah, I had a couple dust-ups,” Gibbons acknowledged. “There’s really no room to get physical. That shouldn’t happen. That was really a black eye for me. Plus I’m too old to be getting physical anyways. I wish it didn’t happen — it did happen. The one thing I will say: I’m an intense guy, I play to win. . . . But still there’s a right and a wrong way to do that. It really didn’t show who I was as an individual. At this level it’s unfortunate, but I think we moved past it.”

Even though Gibbons owes his first time around as manager to his close friend Ricciardi, there was at the time a young assistant hanging around, a constant visitor to the coaches’ room. Anthopoulos and Gibbons became friends out of a mutual passion for baseball. After going their separate ways for seven years, they are back as GM and manager. It’s a safe managerial pick, even if not endorsed by the fans.

“We always used to talk about it, even in the office, what a good manager he was,” Anthopoulos said of the years 2004-08. “I thought the job he did was unbelievable. Manages a great bullpen, as good as I’ve seen. Good evaluator of talent . . . he was right on a lot of players.

“Players love playing for him. They’d go through a wall for him. They respect him. At the same time, if he needed to put his foot down he wasn’t afraid to do that. You combine all those and the added layer that he is connected very well with the front office. From that standpoint he was a perfect fit.”

Perhaps as important as anything, managing the Jays again has become Gibbons’ dream job. He will surely not be entertaining offers from elsewhere.

“I’m sentimental in a lot of ways because I had so many friends up here and I love the town,” Gibbons said. “People treat me good. But it’s more than that.

“My dream job, I had it last year in San Antonio, Texas, my hometown. Didn’t go too well, but I got a chance to live at home. I left that job for this one, so that ought to tell you something.”

There is much to be said for the human touch when you manage a veteran team that knows how to play and how to win. Just ask Cito. Yes, there’s a chance Gibbons can succeed with this roster, but there’s no chance he could have done it with last year’s injury-riddled mix. It’s good timing for genuinely good guy who wants to be here. The Jays could have gone in another direction, with at least as much chance at success, but familiarity and safety count for a lot.

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